Crete: The land of stray dogs

So after our ride on the boat to beat all boats, we were in Crete!  Let me rephrase, we were in Crete and it was 6:30 in the morning.  Thus, all 3 of us were super groggy and disorientated.  We had directions to the hostel we were staying at, but the reception desk didn't open until 7, but we decided to stsart wandering in that direction anyway.  We got to watch the sun come up over the harbor and the old Venetian port that's there.  We decided that we like to get places in the dark becasue then everything looks more mysterious and exciting! 

We got to our hostel and checked in, but our room still had people in it so we couldn't actually get in until 11.  So the super cute guy at the desk gave us a little map of Iraklio and we found this little park to hang out in for the morning.  We still had some bread and jelly left over from the day before so we ate that for breakfast while we worked on our visual journals.

For those of you I haven't told about this, our director Elaine gave us ths really cool project for our trip.  Instead of keeping a traditional write-all-your-feelings journal while abraod, we're doing visual journals.  That means that we collect and keep bus tickets, admission tickets, napkins, leaves, brochures, etc... etc.. from the place we go and the experiences that we have and then paste them in and do some short, reflective writings.  It's supposed to help us process the experience and leave us with a more tactile way to remember our time abroad.  I LOVE IT!  I'll be showing everyone when I get back :)

While we were journaling, we got a good cross section of the people of Crete.  A gypsy woman hasseled Kayla and Sienna for money (I was climbing on the jungle-gym at the time) and then some creepy dude came over and asked us if we spoke english....in those situations, I'm deaf.  It's just easier that way.  A little later some musician guys came over and played some songs for us and pointed us in the direction of the grocery store where we bought, what else, bread, jelly, and crackers.  And a little meat and cheese too.  I don't think I spent more than 30euro on food the entire week!

We went down to the water's edge too and were sitting there when this stray dog came up and started licking my face and wanting to play.  We named him Todd and he was just hanging out with us while we talked.  He looked so sad when we got up to go that we decided to give his a piece of our bread, but he sniffed it and then thought himself too good to eat it so he decided to eat the bench instead.  He legit started gnawing on the seat of teh wooden bench.  Stupid dog!  I grabbed his collar and pulled him away, but he went right back at it, so we walked awaym but he started following!  He followed us all the way across the main street, through a couple neighborhoods and back to that park where he found a friend and then ran away.  We saw him later taking a nap in the grass with his buddy :)

We got into our room and then talked to the guy at the desk about things to do.  We had wanted to hike the Samarian gorge, but because of some heavy rains a week ealier, it closed early for the season.  None of us really wanted to do other hiking if we couldn't go there, so we spent the day exploring the markets and shops in Iraklio.  We saw a bunch of butcher shops that hadd all this gross meat.  There were actually bunnies in one of the cases that still had thier furry tails attached!  Then we saw a guy wheeling a shopping cart down the street filled with whole lamb. Ickkkkyyy!

We stopped for gyros and honey balls (dough puffs covered in honey and sesame seeds :) for dinner and then went back to the hotel to journal some more.  I fell asleep at 10 and didn't wake up until 9 the next morning.  Finals and traveling really takes it out of you!

The next morning we thought we should see some actual Cretian stuff, so we went to the Palace of Knossos.  It's an ancient Minoan palace from about 1500BC.  Unfortunately it's mostly reconstruction work, but the foundations of the buildings are original so it was at least cool to see how big it was!  We got a little bored there, but still had time to wander before the bus came so we decided to speak in accents for the rest of the day :) 

After that we wandered around a little more and went back down to the water where we saw these grey birds with one big, white bird.  We watched them for a while and picked what one we wanted to be and acted out what they were doing :) We grabbed our bags from the hotel and then on our way down the street, we decided that we need a picture with Hot Hotel Man and went back.  He seemed a little confused and didn't realize that there were two flashes on Sienna's camera so he looks really pissed in the picture, but the story was worth the awkwardness!  Then we had to catch our ferry to, drum roll please........, SANTORINI!!!!  yay!